STUDYING GROUPS
IN REAL TIME
The Chicago Center for the Study of Groups and Organizations (CCSGO) is an affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute, advancing group relations in the Tavistock tradition through conferences, trainings, and community in Chicago and beyond.
Who We Are
CCSGO brings people together to study group dynamics and organizational life through experiential learning. Our work focuses on how authority, leadership, role, and task unfold in real time, creating opportunities for reflection, connection, and learning.
Why Group Relations?
Groups shape nearly every aspect of our lives, our workplaces, institutions, communities, and social systems. Yet much of what influences how groups function happens outside of awareness.
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Group Relations theory offers ways of understanding how groups, organizations, and social systems function, particularly the visible and less visible dynamics that shape authority, leadership, role, task, boundaries, membership, and collective behavior.
It can provide useful frameworks for thinking about workplaces, institutions, leadership roles, community life, and broader social systems, especially where complexity, conflict, uncertainty, or questions of belonging emerge.
Rather than offering fixed answers, Group Relations theory invites deeper reflection on patterns that often remain difficult to recognize from within everyday organizational life.
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A Group Relations Conference is an immersive experiential learning event designed to help participants better understand how groups, organizations, and social systems function. The conference itself is structured as a temporary institution created specifically for learning, where participants and staff take up roles within a living social system that can be studied in real time.
Rather than primarily learning through lectures or theory, participants learn through direct experience and the analysis of what emerges around authority, leadership, role, task, boundaries, and group dynamics, both visible and less visible.
Group Relations Conferences are not designed as inherently transformative “containers” in and of themselves. Instead, they serve as environments that reflect and make observable the dynamics that often exist in groups and organizations more broadly. Change comes not simply from participation, but through reflection, analysis, and the application of learning afterward.
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“Tavistock” refers to a tradition of studying groups and organizations that emerged from the work of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London. This approach integrates psychodynamic thinking, open systems theory, and experiential learning to better understand how conscious and unconscious processes shape collective behavior, leadership, and organizational life.
Group Relations Conferences developed from this tradition and remain one of its primary educational methods.
New to this work or interested in exploring further?
Explore key concepts, common questions, and recommended reading.
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
CCSGO works to design, sponsor, and support Conferences, workshops, and programs that bring this life-changing work into practice.
LOOK OUT FOR NEW EVENTS COMING SOON!
CCSGO is actively developing new events and learning opportunities. Keep an eye out for announcements, and get in touch if you’re interested in contributing an idea or working on our Program and Training Committee.
How to Get Involved
There are many ways to engage with CCSGO, whether you are new to Group Relations or looking to deepen your involvement. Click one of the options below to learn more.
Attend a Conference
Participate in a Group Relations Conference to experience this work directly, study group dynamics in real time, and deepen your understanding through immersive learning.
Become a Member
Join a community engaged in the ongoing study of groups and organizations while staying connected to upcoming events, conferences, and learning opportunities.s.
Join a Committee
Contribute to CCSGO’s work by joining committees focused on conferences, programs, membership, communications, and the ongoing development of the organization.
Attend an Event
Not ready to attend a conference? Join a workshop, program, or event to learn more about Group Relations and connect with the broader CCSGO community.
Contact Us
Have any questions for CCSGO? Fill out the contact form and we’ll be in touch with you soon.